31 May 2008

"The mystique of rock climbing is climbing; you get to the top of a rock glad it's over but really wish it would go on forever. The justification of climbing is climbing, like the justification of poetry is writing; you don't conquer anything except things in yourself....The act of writing justifies poetry. Climbing is the same: recognizing that you are a flow. The purpose of the flow is to keep on flowing, not looking for a peak or utopia but staying in the flow. It is not a moving up but a continuous flowing; you move up to keep the flow going. There is no possible reason for climbing except the climbing itself; it is a self-communication."----from Flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I've been feeling a little under the weather since Wednesday and when not scouring the internet for interesting pictures and ideas, I took some pictures in the yard, worked on some knitting projects, watched the season finale of Lost (!) and am just generally laying around and drinking lots of tea.I am working on this baby blanket for Dagny, who I haven't seen in a whole week! I hope to see her again soon.I'm also almost finished with this crazy collar/scarf type thing. The model on the left is wearing it in different colors. I used this gorgeous hand-dyed orange yarn and probably spent way too much money on it- but whatevs, you only live once! The pom-poms came out gigantic and are kind of funny. They are a combo of the orange yarn and another yummy cream colored textured yarn. After making the first pom pom, I realized the cream yarn is really too nice to use as a pom pom and it's cool texture gets lost because all you see are the ends- but that's what I bought it for, and I will have some left over to knit into something cool looking! I just have to attach the poms and put the finishing touches on this.Now onto the garden, I planted a lot of veggies in pots because I haven't finished digging up a space in the lawn for a garden in the yard. Plus, the things I did plant in the ground: broccoli, zucchini, peas-- are all becoming lunch for our neighborhood posse of groundhogs-- who literally hop the fence to get into our yard. I used to think they were cute but now they anger me!!!!!Here are some highlights from the veggies in pots.These are beets:These are swiss chard:

and chives:I also have lettuce, parsley and baby cantaloupe-- but you get the idea. My goal is to transform the backyard into a lush garden with veggies and flowers. It's kind of slow going at the moment-- but I have grand ideas!!!

Here is Phase I though!

This is the before pic--- crazy overgrown and dangerous cactus patch, a tangled mess of prickles, weeds and grasses. This is a little space just behind the deck--

and after: Those yucca or century plants (whichever they are) are going to go too-- they are just a bitch to pull out! I came home from work one day and fueled by a little bit of angst at the boyfriend, I pulled the whole mess out myself-- there is still a big pile of cacti in the yard waiting to go into the trash bin.Anyhoo-- I am envisioning some lillies along the back and sedums amongst those rocks (more artfully arranged of course) for this space.

07 May 2008

Matthew Monohan's sculptures, which I saw at the Carnegie International use materials in very unusual ways. The International has 4 or 5 statuettes and large columnar figures. The human body is carved very realistically in some places and indecipherable in others, like ancient Greek or Roman statuary. Also, one of the figures was sandwiched between two tall pieces of glass and held together with one of those bungee cord- like flat ribbon ropes with a metal buckle. I'm not sure what they are called. They reminded me of artefacts you might find in a shipwreck, frozen in time. They were carved out of huge blocks of floral foam and painted to look like granite or other carvable material and give the illusion that they way tons when floral foam is just that-- foam! Very interesting!

I started working on a drawing from 5 years ago and in the process of re-thinking and filling in, I learned something about myself.... I'm not afraid. This is a really great news because I think 5 years ago my confidence was rocked and I was afraid of doing everything, going anywhere, trying anything etc etc. I'm so much better now! Yay for me!

So, back to this drawing-- I started it in grad school and it depicts a Utopian landscape complete with grassy hills, streams, bridges, trees decorated with tiny lights and these comfy egg shaped modernist chairs hanging from the branches. It was exhibited unfinished but I recently decided to finish it and have been coloring it in and thinking about some changes I'd like to make. It's a very slow process because I'm coloring in each leaf individually.

Otherwise, it's been a while since I've written in the blog- here's what's new in no particular order.

*I applied for the associated artists of pittsburgh and didn't get in. oh well, will try again in the fall.

*I went to see the Carnegie International on sunday and while I didn't see it all-- I was pretty impressed by some of what I did see-- Matthew Monahan's sculptures made out of floral foam, beautiful and unusual statuary relics that look like they are from another place and time. In fact, I can't stop thinking about these. (more on these later)

(image: carnegie museum)

Also, Mark Bradford's huge collaged paintings which use found papers and posters, permanent wave hair wrappers from the hairdresser and other urban detritus. He collages these huge canvases to look like maps of his neighborhood in LA and then sands them down and builds them up in places. These are so freaking awesome and huge and layered!!!

*Stacy and I went to the gallery crawl on Penn Ave on Friday night and we visited some cool little alternative art spaces on Penn Ave., the Glass Center, plus the Tunnel Gallery located in my studio building- which has a cool show of 5 kinetic metal sculptures by Boston artist, AM Lilly.

*Braun Brunch took place with a smaller group than usual this past Sunday. I made lemon ricotta pancakes-- they were REALLY tasty. I found the recipe on the site the kitchn.

(I did not take this picture, it's from the kitchen website linked above!)

*I had a job interview last week and the interviewer asked me to bring a writing sample. I realized I should really start writing more about the art I see. I did not want the job nor was it offered it to me- but I developed a nice piece of writing because of the interview!

Jeremy Blake’s animated videos combine photography, computer art and drawings to create a rich and densely layered landscape. Inspired by pop culture, fashion, the Sixties, psychedelia, punk rock and video games, his artistic process was as complex and layered as his body of work. One of Blake’s video projects, Reading Ossie Clark, was inspired by the 1998 publication of the London based fashion designer’s illustrated diaries. Clark, whose clients included Twiggy, Bianca and Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful, had a great impact on the “swinging sixties.” Blake’s videos mimic diary form with a stream of conscious, non-linear visual narrative of words and images. An ambient soundtrack consists of Clarissa Dalrymple, a NY art dealer and critic, reading fragments from Clark’s diary entries. Employing color, imagery, pattern and sound as tools, Blake constructs an animated world that pays homage to Clark’s influence while referencing the youth culture of life in London in the sixties.Blake grew up in the Washington DC area and was formally trained as a painter. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA 1993) and earned a MFA at Cal Arts in 1995. Blake unfortunately committed suicide during the summer of 2007.* Erica and Heidi had their baby derby party on Sunday and I bought them both little somethings which I wrapped in really cool paper with black ribbon-- distinctively un-babyshowerish but I really like it!

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Words to inspire

Insist upon yourself. Be Original.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

I really think it's important to be in a situation, both in art and in life, where you don't understand what is going on. --John Cage

Listen Carefully: Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with them a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires or ambitions, we fold their world into our own. Neither party will ever be the same. --Bruce Mau from ''An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth''

Every set that I did in the gym, every repetition I did on chin-ups or on squats with 500 pounds, I never said to myself, ‘Oh my God, another rep.' I said, ‘Yes! Another rep, another rep,' because that will make my dream turn into reality.--Arnold Schwarzenegger

Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.--Gordon Parks

Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.--Oliver Wendel HolmesInspiration exists, but it has to find you working.--PicassoWe are shaped and fashioned by what we love.--GoetheGreat art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist.--Edward HopperThey say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.--Andy WarholA work of art is above all an adventure of the mind.--Eugene Ionesco

20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.--Mark Twain

You've gotta fake it till you make it.--Tyra Banks from Next Top Model